Why You Should Never Be Ashamed To Go To The Gym

Good morning everyone, this is Demetrius from DRichFitness. Today I want to talk about a topic that isn’t often addressed by the bigger names in the fitness game. This may be due to the fact that these men and women have been going to the gym so long that they don’t remember how it feels to be “out of their element”. It could also be because they have an image to maintain and want the perception that they have always been the man (or woman). I have no image to maintain, and even when my name blows up I am secure enough in myself to open up to my audience. I mainly am addressing the gym/bodybuilding crowd, but you can adapt this message even if you train in a sports based gym or do anything where you are exposed to the general public.

To give a little background on myself, I am 25 years old and have lifted weights since I was 13.

I played football and wrestled in high school, and I recently (January) joined a mixed martial arts gym and started training Juijitsu.

My love for bodybuilding led me to going to the local gym when I was 15 years old. I remember seeing professional bodybuilders, college athletes, and super in-shape people who just loved to work out.

It took me a few months to get used to being in a new environment. Some of the things I had to adapt to were:

-The loudness of the gym

-People that like to size you up

-People asking you what you do to build a certain muscle group (I’ve always had pretty good arms and a wide back.)

Looking back on it now, it seems pretty silly but the thing I want you to take away from this experience is that I continued to go to the gym even when I was out of my comfort zone. This paid off in the form of gaining respect and admiration in and out of the gym, attention from the opposite sex, and increased athletic performance. A side benefit from this experience is that I gained self-confidence in the fact that I saw that I was able to set a goal and achieve it in spite of external situations.

Maybe you’re an athlete or martial artist instead of a bodybuilder.

I can also relate to you, because I am one of the “new guys” at my jiujitsu gym. A little backstory about this is I have been a big fan of combat sports since high school. In between serving 4 years in the military, 2 deployments, and going to college, my aspirations of learning martial arts started to fade.

I made excuses like:

“It’s too expensive” But I could afford it.

“I don’t want to be the new guy” But everyone was the new guy at some point.

“I don’t want to get submitted by a woman” And it happened more than once.

The turning point came around the first week of January when I decided that I didn’t want to be the 30-year old who wished he had started in his 20s.

The funny thing is that a lot of people joined the gym when I did, so I’m not the newest person nor the least experienced. I do get destroyed by the upper belts, but I can see improvement and I am able to hang with a lot of the people that are my rank and slightly above. Either way, Jiujitsu is a lot of fun and I am glad I started this year instead of letting another year pass me by.

The point of those two stories is not for me to brag or give myself props. The message I want you to take away is that I wouldn’t be who I am today if I had let fear stop me from doing the things I want to do with my life.

Maybe your goals don’t include a gym or getting into shape, but I have the knowledge to help you with that if that is what you want.

You can still use this mindset if your goal is to go to college, or get a better job, or even start your own business. The process is going to involve you having to take a leap of faith and believing in yourself. Some of your friends and family members might even doubt you, but your desire for achievement must be higher than your desire for external validation. These same people will tell you how they believed in you the whole time once you do achieve your goals (go figure).

There is nothing to fear, and you will most likely love going to the gym once you adapt to it and start making the progress that you want in your physique. Once you have this momentum going it will become easier to stick to your new, better habits than to fall back into your old, unproductive habits. As always if you like the message, subscribe, like, and comment. I’m out.

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